Course Catalog

Interdisciplinary Problem Solving is a course offered at the Law School through the Problem Solving Initiative (PSI). (https://michigan.law.umich.edu/problem-solving-initiative) Through a team-based, experiential, and interdisciplinary learning model, small groups of U-M graduate and professional students work with faculty to explore and offer solutions to emerging, complex problems.

• Type: Problem Solving Initiative

This two-credit seminar will focus on the law, policy, and practice of internal investigations. Students primarily will read and do a close study of prominent internal investigation reports, including, among others, those involving Enron, Penn State, General Motors, the University of Rochester, and Ohio State. The course will depend on active and substantive class participation and discussion. Students will prepare a number of short papers; and grades will be based on the quality of papers and class participation.

• Type: Seminar

This class offers a general introduction to the international legal system. We will explore how international law is made through treaties, custom, and other processes; the roles of different actors (e.g., states, NGOs, international organizations, and corporations) in making and applying international law; how violations of international law are identified and remedied by international institutions or actors; and how international law intersects with domestic legal systems, like the one in the United States. The class will cover a range of substantive areas of law, including human rights, the use of force, economic relations, and regulation of the global commons (with some variations across sections). Each topic will be discussed through examination of a real ongoing or recent incident, controversy, or conflict. Students will be encouraged to think about how law can be made, enforced, and interpreted in an environment lacking a single legislature, executive, or judiciary. This course will prove highly useful to preparing students for more specialized courses in international law.

• Type: Upper Class

This course will address the major issues of international litigation, including jurisdiction (under domestic American law, foreign law, and international conventions), choice of law (from an American and foreign, particularly European, perspective), taking evidence abroad (under American and international rules), and enforcement of judgments (foreign judgements in the U.S. and American judgments abroad). Time permitting, it will also cover the basic issues of international arbitration and foreign sovereign immunity.

• Type: Upper Class

This foundational course provides a comprehensive analysis of the definition of refugee status set by the UN Refugee Convention, adopted by the United States and 146 other states. Drawing on comparative jurisprudence, the course situates U.S. refugee law in its global context and equips students to undertake both sophisticated policy analysis and complex litigation in the field. The course promotes an understanding of refugee law as a mode of human rights protection, the viability of which requires striking a balance between the needs of the victims of human rights abuse and the legitimate aspirations of the countries to which they flee.

• Type: Upper Class

The International Transactions Clinic (ITC) does good by doing deals. The ITC concentrates on teaching students skills that are critically important to their professional development as they enter into practice areas that involve international transactions. The transactional work of the ITC is focused on negotiating and documenting cross-border deals, particularly in emerging markets. This includes developing drafting and negotiation skills as applied to cross-border transactions, exposure to ethical issues that arise in the international commercial context, structuring and documenting investments in enterprises that primarily work in emerging markets, and an understanding of international economic and financial policy. The ITC is a full-year clinic with four credits in the Fall semester and four credits in the Winter semester. Both terms are letter graded.
Students are strongly encouraged to participate in the ITC for at least two semesters so as to allow them to provide legal support in the negotiation and documentation of multiple international transactions. To the greatest extent possible, students will have significant client exposure in the course of working on transactions, although in some cases due to the international context of these transactions such client exposure may be “virtual” making use of email, skype, and other means of electronic communication. The ITC also makes use of practicing attorneys to help supervise the work of its student clinicians. These practicing attorneys also may be physically remote from the students.
The ITC clientele is very diverse. It ranges from not-for-profit organizations to for-profit organizations, from start-ups to well-established businesses, and from social enterprises to impact investors. What all of the ITC clients hold in common, however, is an international focus and a passion to change the world for the better. This diversity also means, however, that not every project of the ITC will meet the New York bar pro bono requirement. Students wanting to satisfy that requirement through their participation in the ITC should make that preference known to the ITC Director before first client assignments are made in the fall.
The Clinic fulfills the Law School’s professional responsibility requirement for graduation, but does not fulfill the New York State Bar ethics requirement.
The Clinic can either fulfill the Law School’s professional responsibility requirement for graduation or the credits can count toward the Experiential Learning requirement, but not both.
The Clinic fulfills the International or Comparative Law Distribution Requirement for graduation.

• Type: Clinic

Instructor: Professor Debra A. Pinals, M.D.
Course Summary: In this course, students will become oriented to common crossroads where law and psychiatry intersect. The course will begin with an overview of mental illness, substance use disorders, and intellectual and developmental disabilities from legal and clinical perspectives. A review of case law and legislation pertaining to civil commitment, the right to treatment, the right to refuse treatment, and guardianship will help students gain an understanding of the legal regulation of psychiatric practice. Risk assessment, confidentiality and the duty to protect third parties and related tort claims will be covered. Students will explore mental health assessments and expert witness testimony pertaining to criminal law in areas such as competence to stand trial, competence to proceed pro se, criminal responsibility, and sex offenders. Finally, students will have an opportunity to learn about public systems attempt to address mental health treatment needs in psychiatric hospitals, jails and prisons and other venues such as treatment courts and other models have been developed to limit the redirect individuals with mental illness and substance use disorders from incarceration. The course will provide a forum to review federal legislation, government agencies, and litigation and how they come together to help shape services in public systems. The course will rely on assigned readings, short lectures, video material, and classroom prompts to stimulate discussion. There will be at least one field trip as part of the course. Short written or activity-related assignments, classroom participation and a final brief paper will be the basis for final grades.

• Type: Seminar

Perhaps contrary to a significant portion of the legal profession, legal concepts relating to outer space have a long history, are robust and growing. Even when space exploration and operations were exclusively the domain of nation states, a multitude of international treaties, conventions and other agreements governed activities in space. As the private sector is increasingly playing a supporting and, in some cases, a leading player in the development of space, the applicability and interpretation of those international treaties are under review and stress. National security and economic considerations are now increasingly emphasized over peaceful exploration for scientific purposes. And, a growing number of nation states have developed laws and policies relating to the private sector in space.

This course provides an introduction and overview of space law, international and domestic. After reviewing what “space” means physically and legally, we proceed to examines the origins and development of international space law in international treaties and agreements and the purported underlying policy consensus relating to peaceful exploration for the benefit of all humankind. Much of the class then focuses on the recent decades of space activity and the more-recent nature of international space law and the fast-developing national laws competitively supporting and governing the increasing private-sector participation in space. Critical legal and policy issues are considered relating to space-based natural resources extraction and ownership on the Moon, planets and asteroids, human settlements, in-space manufacturing, space debris and other environmental concerns. Near the end of the semester, we will review legal issues relating to the U.S. Space Force and the Artemis Accords. Finally, we will discuss the growing market for “space lawyers.” We expect to have a few guest speakers, either in-person or online.

• Type: Seminar

The objective of this course is primarily to learn and engage in the general concepts undergirding the wide range of topics described as “jurisprudence.” Though jurisprudence is formally the study of theoretical foundations of law, in practice, it includes much more. Jurisprudence relies upon or touches moral theory, political theory and a wide range of social and even economic theories.
In this class we will explore some of each in turn. While an introductory survey class cannot impart expertise, students will become familiar with the foundational concepts and arguments in a number of jurisprudential debates.
The class will explore questions like what is the ground of political obligation? What is the most persuasive theory of morality and of ethics? What is the nature of law? What justifies criminalization? How do questions of race and gender affect our legal obligations? Understanding these debates, from ancient philosophers to contemporary thinkers, we will allow students familiarity and more sophisticated insight into these debates and the basis for future investigation.
Just as importantly, jurisprudence teaches two levels of lessons that are essential for both law school and practice. First, jurisprudence insists on a level of precision in reading and thinking that greatly sharpens legal thinking. It is no surprise that many renowned appellate litigators benefitted from training in legal philosophy.
Just as importantly, the subject matter in jurisprudence is of enduring importance. Far from being merely about academic fluency, students will find these concepts and ideas underlie some of the most pressing debates we are currently grappling as a society. From the justifications of policing, solutions to racial justice, civil disobedience, authority, gender and law and so much more, philosophical inspection clarifies the stakes and claims of so much that roils us as a nation today. Jurisprudence is not (just) about dusty old books. It is about the heart of our claims for and against each other and how they ought to be reflected in law. Jurisprudence is philosophy with bayonets on.

• Type: Seminar

In the Juvenile Justice Clinic, students will represent minors charged with violations of the criminal law and status offenses in Michigan’s family courts. While primarily a litigation clinic, students may from time-to-time handle appellate matters and may be involved in public policy issues such as analyzing proposed legislation.
In the course of clinic, students will develop litigation skills including case investigation, trial preparation, and presenting evidence and argument in the courtroom. Casework, which is supervised by a clinical professor, may involve client interviewing and counseling, legal research and motion drafting, negotiation with prosecuting authorities, and courtroom presentation of the case. In addition to trial advocacy and casework, classroom sessions will also focus on legal ethics, the basics of child development and other topics. The Juvenile Justice Clinic meets the New York Pro-Bono requirement. JJC is a 7 credit course of which all credits are graded.
The Clinic seminar fulfills the Law School’s professional responsibility requirement for graduation, but does not fulfill the New York State Bar ethics requirement.

• Type: Clinic

In the Juvenile Justice Clinic, students will represent minors charged with violations of the criminal law and status offenses in Michigan’s family courts. While primarily a litigation clinic, students may from time-to-time handle appellate matters and may be involved in public policy issues such as analyzing proposed legislation.
In the course of clinic, students will develop litigation skills including case investigation, trial preparation, and presenting evidence and argument in the courtroom. Casework, which is supervised by a clinical professor, may involve client interviewing and counseling, legal research and motion drafting, negotiation with prosecuting authorities, and courtroom presentation of the case. In addition to trial advocacy and casework, classroom sessions will also focus on legal ethics, the basics of child development and other topics. The Juvenile Justice Clinic meets the New York Pro-Bono requirement. JJC is a 7 credit course of which all credits are graded.
The Clinic seminar fulfills the Law School’s professional responsibility requirement for graduation, but does not fulfill the New York State Bar ethics requirement.

• Type: Clinic

This course explores the legal framework governing coordinated action by workers. Broadly speaking, the topics we study are: 1) the regulation of union organizing, and of various other forms of worker collective action and worker protest; 2) the public recognition of labor organizations and subsequent regulation of the collective bargaining relationship. We look at the development of the law, its current operation, and where it may go. We focus mainly on the National Labor Relations Act, related case-law and agency decisions. We may also consider historical and comparative perspectives on labor law, emerging forms of worker organization and union strategies outside the scope of the NLRA, interaction with other areas of law and and with changing business models, labor law reform proposals, and/or collective worker participation in politics. While there are no formal prerequisites, many students may find either Administrative Law or Legislation & Regulation helpful (whether taken beforehand or concurrently).

• Type: Upper Class

This seminar will examine the socio-political and legal background on the formation of the International Criminal Court, as well as some of the rationales that many African nations were: among the first to become States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court; the first governments to make referrals to the ICC for investigation and possible prosecution; and the first to withdraw from the Treaty. Students will gain an understanding of the types of crimes tried by the Court, read multiple actual case studies, evaluate different arguments, and analyze Court decisions. Students will be expected to write short reaction and thematic papers, work on one or more group projects, and write a longer paper focusing on one or more politico-diplomatic or legal challenges: governments who lack trust in the ICC; the nature and/or power of individual defendants; security of witnesses; evidence; and/or ramifications at the national or regional level of decisions made by the judges.

• Type: Seminar

All seminar participants will attend the Law and Economics Workshop, a series of afternoon presentations by leading scholars from around the country who are engaged in research at the intersection of law and economics. The Workshop is also attended by faculty members from the Law School, the Business School, and the Economics Department. In advance of each session, students will read the paper to be presented and prepare a two- or three-page critique. No background in Economics or in Law and Economics is required.

• Type: Seminar

This seminar will examine the the ongoing policy debate over repair and its legal underpinnings. From smartphones to agricultural equipment, restrictions on repair are reshaping markets for goods — with major implications for consumers, competition, and the environment. In recent years, state and federal legislatures, courts, and executive agencies like the FTC have considered a range of potential interventions to enable independent repair of electronic devices and other goods. Beyond the United States, we’ve seen Australia, France, South Africa, and other nations develop their own unique responses to repair restrictions. These ongoing debates implicate a range of bodies of law ranging from intellectual property to consumer protection to antitrust, all of which we will consider.

• Type: Seminar

The economist John Maurice Clark once observed that prominent economic thinkers may attempt to ignore psychology, but they cannot thereby avoid psychology. Rather, he wrote, policymakers will be forced to “make [their] own, and it will be bad psychology.” The same can be said of the law.
In this seminar, we will examine the ways in which the law makes its own psychology, and we will analyze whether it is good or bad psychology. We will examine various legal doctrines, but we will not cover any area of law in a systematic fashion. This class will emphasize insights to be gleaned from social and cognitive psychology, and will spend comparatively less time on developmental or clinical psychology.

• Type: Seminar

This seminar explores the ways in which the problems considered, analytical techniques used, and conceptual models developed by theologians can provide useful insights to students of the law. Specific subjects addressed may vary depending upon the backgrounds and interests of class participants, contemporary legal developments, and the availability of guest speakers, but are likely to include: identifying and defining sources of authority; the interpretation of complex texts composed by multiple authors; the significance of ritual; the tension between justice and mercy; the importance of storytelling; and the role of mystery. Active class participation and preparation of a research paper will be required.

• Type: Seminar

The Law in Slavery and Freedom: A Legal History Practicum
This seminar offers an opportunity to carry out both legal analysis and historical research on a set of issues that have been central to the history of the Americas. We will explore the ways in which slavery, long defined as the ownership of property in human beings, interacted with the structures and practices of law, both in the United States and in Latin America. We will examine how law addressed the category of “slave” and codified the power of slave owners, and how those held as slaves interacted with legal institutions and practices, both civil and criminal.
Course readings include works by legal scholars and historians, as well as files from Supreme Court cases and everyday legal challenges. We will pay particular attention to the cases of The Antelope; Prigg v. Pennsylvania; and The U. S. v. The Libellants and Claimants of the Schooner Amistad. We will also examine a state criminal case (Celia, A Slave) and court records from freedom suits, including one from Cuba, one from Louisiana, and one from the period of British rule of the Gold Coast (in what is now Ghana). We will examine voting in the face of terrorist violence during the period of Reconstruction (including U. S. v. Cruikshank).
Students will work together on panels for the presentation of specific cases. Each student will submit a short paper, a research prospectus, and a longer primary source document analysis.

• Type: Seminar

This seminar will explore scholarly literature covering a range of issues in the law of American federalism. We will study both theoretical material relating to the design of federal systems and specific issues relating to the allocation of power between the federal government and the states in this country. We will attempt to develop a sophisticated understanding of the merits and demerits of different approaches toward dividing power between the federal and state governments and to apply insights from the relevant theoretical literature to specific doctrinal problems.

• Type: Seminar

This seminar will introduce students to the law of armed conflict (LOAC), also known as international humanitarian law (IHL), with a focus on jus in bello, law governing how warfare is conducted. Students will explore core principles and concepts along with the evolution of the law of armed conflict before surveying selected topics, including: how to determine conflict, combatant, and civilian statuses; war crimes; targeting; rules of engagement; torture; cyberattacks; and issues with AI, autonomous weapons, drones, and targeted killing. Throughout the course we will consider contemporary LOAC challenges, examining topics in the context of current events. We will analyze and evaluate tensions between the principles of military necessity and humanity, political, military, and societal considerations, and differences in US and international state approaches. We will think critically about the rationales underlying, and practical applications of, key concepts of LOAC in the context of terrorism and in connection with past, current, and future conflicts.
Class will be centered on robust discussion informed by readings, response papers, and occasional media presentations. This class is open to all students interested in engaging the subject matter — a military, national security, or international law background is not required.

• Type: Seminar

This will for the most part be a traditional course in legal ethics and professional responsibility. We will focus on the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, along with other sources of law governing lawyers. Our primary aim will be to identify and analyze ethical issues that arise in the practice of law, including: confidentiality, competence, conflicts of interest, lawyer advertising, multi-jurisdictional practice, litigation ethics, negotiation ethics, and issues arising in the representation of entities. In the process, we will also consider broader questions about what sort of lawyers we want to be and how that might fit into our lives. Those broader questions, valuable for their own sake, will also help us think more clearly about the pragmatic principles and rules we need to know as we prepare to practice law.

• Type: Upper Class

Legal Practice Skills II, a full-semester course, continues the skills- and client-based focus of the first-semester Legal Practice courses. Among other things, one goal of LP Skills II is shifting students into the role of an advocate. As was the case in the first semester, the timing and range of specific skills covered in the course differs from professor to professor. For example, students may develop skills in advocacy and persuasive argument through instruction in pre-trial procedures, pleadings, and drafting pre-trial motions. They then have one or more chances to argue on behalf of a client before a judge or panel of judges. Students may also be introduced to transactional practice and skills, such as learning how to negotiate with other parties in a transactional setting followed by drafting agreements to memorialize the results of those negotiations. As the course progresses, students are repeatedly reminded of how their professional and ethical obligations affect the choices they make when representing clients. Students receive frequent guidance on their assignments via formative feedback from their professors, as well as numerous opportunities for student-driven self-evaluation.

• Type: First Year Required

This course will help forward-looking law students become familiar with the wide variety of technologies used in and changing the practice of law today and understand the expectations clients, firms, law departments, and other legal organizations have about the technological literacy required for future legal leaders. Law firms face pressure from clients to innovate, embrace technology, and deliver greater value. Corporate legal departments are investing in technology and legal operations, engaging alternative legal service providers, and increasing their capabilities to deliver legal services internally. At the same time, technology used by non-traditional legal businesses is changing and automating tasks previously performed by lawyers. It is a time of challenge and opportunity, often described by the term “NewLaw.” This course will focus on the major legal technology concepts and approaches that lawyers currently face in the practice of law and will increasingly need to understand thrive in the new era of legal services. It is NOT a class that will train students on the use of specific technologies or require a technology background. After establishing a foundation of legal-service delivery knowledge, we will focus on innovation and technology tools, from basics to the newest and most advanced technologies being used in the practice of law. We will explore how lawyers engage in substantive practice with these tools, what clients want their lawyers to know about technology, and how technology and innovation hold great promise for increasing access to legal services. We will cover the ethical requirement of technology competency and then move forward into technology literacy and the role technology literacy will play in shaping the leaders in the legal profession. Students will complete two major papers of the topic of their choice (a first draft and then a final version) and a short class presentation. Upon completing this course, students will have the understanding, knowledge, and skills to actively participate in technology and innovation initiatives and become leaders in law firms, legal departments, legal organizations, and the legal profession.

• Type: Practice Simulation

In the modern regulatory state, the rules that most profoundly shape private conduct come not from the common law but, instead, from legislatures and agencies. This class will explore the lawmaking function of these institutions and the virtues and vices of administrative governance. Among other things, the class will cover: the nature of the legislative process; statutory interpretation; the justifications for regulatory intervention; regulatory tools and strategies; the allocation of authority between legislatures and agencies; the varied forms of agency decision-making; and judicial review of agency decisions. In offering a survey of public law, the course will introduce students to the essentials of both statutory interpretation and administrative law.

• Type: Upper Class

In this seminar, we’ll consider philosophical questions that arise at the edges of life. We will inquire into the ethics of reproduction, considering both the choice to have children and the choice to terminate a pregnancy. We’ll think about death, what it is, whether it is bad, and whether we may assist others in dying. We’ll think about love at the edges of life — and the role it plays in the ethical decisions that we make. And finally, we’ll think about the law at the edges of life — asking how it should or shouldn’t regulate decisions that are made there.

• Type: Seminar

For most Americans, their primary interactions with the government are with local government: the schools that care for their children, the police departments that exercise deadly force on their behalf or against them, the zoning boards that decide where and how they can live, and the countless sanitation and transportation agencies on whose services they rely daily. This class examines those local governments. We will both study the law governing local governments’ powers generally and explore the specific functions our political system has chosen to entrust to the lowest level of government. In doing so, we will consider what authority and responsibilities local governments have been granted and denied, how that authority may be exercised, how conflicts between local governments and other private and public entities are resolved, and who is empowered and excluded by these governance decisions. We will pay close attention to the institutional structures of local government: with more than 90,000 local governments in the United States, local governments are designed and operate very differently from each other, not to mention from the federal government. And throughout, we will ask how these legal choices about local government affect the most pressing policy issues of today—and how you, as local government lawyers or citizens of local government, can affect them in turn.

• Type: Upper Class

Students in the Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic (LITC) represent individuals with federal and state tax controversies through administrative advocacy and litigation in the United States Tax Court. Students can expect to gain exposure to a broad range of tax problems, both substantive and procedural, that will be valuable when working with clients of any income level in the future. Students also work with community organizations to provide information about tax issues and taxpayer rights and responsibilities to individuals who speak English as a second language.
The LITC is a 7 credit course and meets the New York Pro-Bono requirement. Students must enroll in the 4 credit clinic and the 3 credit seminar, taken concurrently. The 4 credit clinic and 3 credit seminar are mandatory graded and ineligible for letter grade conversion to pass (“P”) election.
The Clinic fulfills the Law School’s professional responsibility requirement for graduation, but does not fulfill the New York State Bar ethics requirement.
The Clinic fulfills the Statutory or Regulatory Course Distribution Requirement for graduation applicable to JD students who matriculated in May 2016 and thereafter.

• Type: Clinic

Students in the Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic (LITC) represent individuals with federal and state tax controversies through administrative advocacy and litigation in the United States Tax Court. Students can expect to gain exposure to a broad range of tax problems, both substantive and procedural, that will be valuable when working with clients of any income level in the future. Students also work with community organizations to provide information about tax issues and taxpayer rights and responsibilities to individuals who speak English as a second language.
The LITC is a 7 credit course and meets the New York Pro-Bono requirement. Students must enroll in the 4 credit clinic and the 3 credit seminar, taken concurrently. The 4 credit clinic and 3 credit seminar are mandatory graded and ineligible for letter grade conversion to pass (“P”) election.
The Clinic fulfills the Law School’s professional responsibility requirement for graduation, but does not fulfill the New York State Bar ethics requirement.
The Clinic fulfills the Statutory or Regulatory Course Distribution Requirement for graduation applicable to JD students who matriculated in May 2016 and thereafter.

• Type: Clinic

This course explores the development of the Civilian legal tradition — one of the world’s major legal traditions today — with a particular focus on its early history and its later uses in early modern and modern contexts. Working with a reverse chronology, the first third of the course analyses how the Civil Law tradition was shaped and molded by European lawyers and jurists during the ‘long’ nineteenth century. We then move back in time to survey the roles played by arguments from Roman civil law in early modern colonial expansion, with a specific focus on the establishment of Spanish and Portuguese rule in the Americas. In the second half of the course we move back in time again in order to analyze the making of Roman law itself, providing an overview of fundamental Roman legal concepts and critically questioning the extent to which the Civil Law tradition — which we examined in the first half of the course — was built upon ancient Roman legal ideas and sources. Through lectures, as well as discussion of key primary sources and secondary materials, the course will introduce the following key topics: the sources and methods of the (Roman) Civil law tradition, including case law, equity and the role played by legal experts (‘jurists’) in scientific legal development; the rise of codes, codification and the interpretation of statute law; the distinction between private and public law; the concept of jurisdiction; how legal concepts such as contracts, torts etc. change and develop through time; and the uses to which Roman legal arguments have been put in order to justify colonial conquest, both ancient and modern. No prior study of history or the civilian legal tradition is required.

• Type: Upper Class

Managing Crisis: Strategies and Tactics for Corporate Distress and Restructuring
Welcome to what many in business consider the Wild West: the world of Corporate Distress and Restructuring. Attorneys, bankers, and consultants of all sorts find themselves representing one of the many stakeholders in a corporate restructuring. They can act as advisor to a landlord (for example, Simon Property Group) who has a tenant (such as, J. Crew) that files for chapter 11. They can be counsel to a lender (for example, Citibank) that has a troubled loan extended to a distressed borrower (such as, well, anyone in chapter 11 — and many who are not). They can work as turnaround consultants to a company working through strategic options to survive an existential challenge, which can be related to business-model dynamics, compliance issues with debt documents, product litigation, and more.
This new course provides a framework for understanding how these distress situations play out in our legal system. We will examine the types of transactions and strategies implemented, including liability-management transactions (i.e., maturity extensions and/or distressed debt exchanges), distressed M&A, vulture investing, operational turnarounds, and more. Our goal is to understand the world of Distress and Corporate Restructuring, a subsector in our financial and legal system that is poised for very busy times in the upcoming years due to the current interest-rate dynamics and near-term economic outlook.
The course will meet weekly to discuss assigned reading and case studies. To enhance learning and keep focused on practical realities, there will be frequent guest presentations from nationally recognized experts, who include lawyers in private practice, investment bankers, consultants, business executives, and others. They will present their own case studies drawing on their own experiences in real world situations.
The basic bankruptcy course is not a prerequisite, but certainly lends itself to this course for those interested in a deeper dive into the world of Corporate Distress and Restructuring. Rest assured, bankruptcy newcomers are most welcome and equally positioned for success. We will cover a series of advanced topics in corporate restructuring across a broad array of disciplines ranging from investment banking to turnaround consulting, from legal strategy to hedge-fund investing. Upon completion of this course, students will be versed in the general dynamics, relevant lingo, and current-event issues in the world of corporate restructurings. They will also be well-positioned to apply the lessons learned to practical, real-world situations.

• Type: Upper Class

The Public Defender Training Institute is an intensive immersion into the world of indigent defense designed to train aspiring public defenders. This second half of the course is only open to students who have enrolled in and completed participation in Part I. In this second semester, students learn about plea bargaining, evidence, motions practice, jury selection, and trial advocacy (openings, direct examinations, cross examinations, closings, and sentencing hearings).

• Type: Practice Simulation

Mediation is a powerful, popular and oft-required dispute resolution process in which attorneys are frequently involved, whether they are serving as mediators in legal disputes or as advocates for their clients in the mediation process. In this experiential practicum, through simulated conflicts, role play and guidance from experienced mediators, you will act as both mediators and advocates for your clients in mediation. You will learn the ins-and-outs of the mediation process, and you will learn and utilize practical and effective mediation skills, strategies and techniques, including client preparation, management of difficult personalities, and effective oral and written mediation advocacy. This is a very interactive, hands-on course in which you will learn communication and conflict resolution skills that you will find useful, not only in your mediation practice, but in many areas beyond it.

• Type: Practice Simulation

This course explores the legal and business aspects of corporate mergers and acquisitions, with consideration of corporate takeovers more generally (including proxy fights). The course emphasizes the practical “nuts-and-bolts” of these transactions with respect to both public companies and private companies, as well as from the perspectives of both buyers and sellers. The ultimate objective is to prepare students for deal work by unpacking the jargon and educating them on fundamental transactional inputs, the deal process itself, and the common points of friction and negotiation between the parties.

• Type: Upper Class